Book Review for "Kids of Appetite" {by David Arnold}

(Source)

TITLE OF THE BOOK: Kids of Appetite
AUTHOR: David Arnold
PUBLISHER: Viking Books for Young Readers
NUMBER OF PAGES: 335

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2016
READING LEVEL: Young Adult
GENRE: Teen, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

BOOK SUMMARY: Vic Bennuci is a 16 year old boy who suffers with Moebius Syndrome. He’s a grieving teen who runs away from home with an urn of his dad’s ashes and a set of instructions on how to spread them. He then happens to stumble upon the best friends of his life; a diverse group of kids who help him complete his task.  A honest and heartfelt story of love, loss, acceptance, and adventure. 

Our Star Rating...

4 out of 5 stars

OUR GROUP REVIEW: Alix was our moderator for this book and she did a fantastic job. This book brought out great discussion and overall most everyone really enjoyed this read. 

Alix started off the group discussion with this comment/question from the book. “We are all part of the same story, each of us different chapters.” We are all chapters in each other’s lives. How well do you know your fellow chapters? This is a great question to ask ourselves. To follow up this question we played a fun game. A few days before book club, Alix had asked us all to send her three facts about ourselves that no one at book club knows. For the game, Alix read off some of the things people sent in, and we had to guess who it was. It was such a fun game and great way to get to know our fellow “chapters” a little better. 

What was our favorite part of the book? It’s hard to say too many favorite parts without giving away any spoilers, but we really liked the premise of the book. The fulfilling of a dying man’s last wish for a book is such an interesting idea, but it gave it so much meaning. We really liked the characters as well. They were all so interesting and complex. They were unique and so different from each other, but worked so well together. You could feel the love they had for one another. This book had a lot of love. Not just romantic love, but love in so many different types of relationships. 

 This book was FULL of so many great one- liners and quotes. A lot of our book discussion was just about some of the best quotes. Here are just a FEW of some our favorites. There were so many great ones to choose from. 

“It’s no accident, the memories that last. They are survivors”“It’s a sad thing, recognizing yourself in a sad thing”“It cost almost nothing to tell a stranger almost everything”“I’d been thinking about love recently, and how it wasn’t contingent on the person receiving it; it was contingent on the person giving it.”“It’s crazy: you can miss just about anything when it belongs to the right person.”“Quiet observers tend to be the loudest thinkers.”“This mall was one hell of a sideways hug.”“Dad could make Mom laugh like nobody. And now she laughs like everybody.”“I am a Super Racehorse.”“I wanted her. But not like that. Or not just like that. I wanted Mad in every like that”.“The kiss ends as kissed do, it’s done with us, even if we aren’t done with it.”“Till we’re old-new.”

The main character has Moebius Syndrome. We talked a little bit about this. It was interesting how the authors gave the main character a disorder like this, but then not have it be the main focus of the book.  Vic having Moebius wasn’t the main focus, but it definitely made the story more impactful and the character more interesting and lovable. His disorder makes him who he is. We talked about, how sadly sometimes Vic and other people with physical disorders are treated like they have a mental disorder. “I often thought the most unfair thing about having Moebius wasn’t Moebius at all, but other people’s inability to define me by anything else.” 

Our discussion was closed with this quote from the book. “We are all part of the same story, each of us different chapters. We may not have power to choose the setting or plot, but we can choose what kind of character we want to be.” What a powerful message that last sentence is. We discussed some of the trials we have in our own lives and how some of them we can’t control, but what we can control is how we react to those challenges. How we react can change what kind of a “character” we want to be. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

David Arnold 

(Source)

Name: David

Occupation: Writer of stories (and songs)

Publications: MOSQUITOLAND and KIDS OF APPETITE 

Location: Lexington, KY

Awesome family: awesome wife, awesome son

Previous job experience: freelance musician, preschool teacher, stay-at-home dad

Qualifications: Uh

Favorite foods: pesto, chips, coffee, things with cilantro, garlicky things, really good soup I guess

Favorite places: bookstores, record stores, Middle-earth, Hogwarts, my house

Favorite time of year: Christmastime

Favorite music: Elliott, Miles, Tiersen, Arcade Fire, Bowie, The Antlers, Sylvan Esso, Brion, Sufjan, Sakamoto, Sigur Ros, Veirs, Desplat, Debussy

Favorite TV shows: The West Wing, The X Files, Arrested Development, The Office, Seinfeld, Game of Thrones, Community, Six Feet Under

Least favorite things: olives, liars, wet socks

xoxo,

Shalease